Ennis-Hill: Win would lift athletics It was shocking to hear what was going on in Russia
JESSICA ENNIS-HILL accepts that, through no fault of her own, some people might be deterred from voting for her at the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year awards tomorrow because of the doping crisis engulfing athletics.
The heptathlete is the favourite of many to win the award, having won world championships gold barely a year after giving birth to her first child, Reggie.
But her achievements and those of fellow Olympic champions Greg Rutherford and Mo Farah, also on the SPOTY shortlist, have been eclipsed by damaging revelations of widespread cheating and corruption in the sport.
Not to mention the shadow cast over SPOTY by the homophobic and sexist comments of Tyson Fury, which she laughed off.
‘I hope people won’t be dissuaded from voting,’ said Ennis-Hill. ‘The doping revelations aren’t great for our sport and there has been a lot of negativity.’
As a child attending twice-weekly athletics sessions at her local track in Sheffield, Ennis-Hill would watch SPOTY on the TV with her parents Vinnie and Alison.
‘My grandparents and my parents love it,’ she said. ‘ They’ve always tuned in and watched. Ultimately you want to be judged on your performances on the track and how well you compete but I’d be lying if I said it’s not a nice award to win. It’s always been one of the big awards everyone is aware of. It caps off your year in a brilliant way.’
Victory for Ennis-Hill over the likes of Andy Murray and Lewis Hamilton would also come as a welcome boost for a sport lurching from one scandal to another.
She said: ‘It’s really important to highlight what the clean athletes are doing and there are so many of them doing it the right way. It just seems a real shame that everyone is tarnished with that same brush.
‘If I were to win it would round off the year in a much brighter light than the way we started it.’
It has been 13 months since a German TV documentary alleged systematic doping in Russian athletics, confirmed by a World Anti-Doping Agency report. It is also alleged that Lamine Diack, the former president of the IAAF, athletics’ world governing body, took bribes to cover up positive tests.
With a report into doping in Kenyan athletics due in the new year and another report expected to damn the IAAF for not following up suspicious blood value readings, the storm will only intensify.
While her coach Toni Minichiello has been vocal in condemning the drugs cheats and questioning whether IAAF president Seb Coe is the right man to lead the sport, Ennis-Hill has kept her counsel. But she does admit she will cast a watchful eye on Russian athletes in the future.
‘I heard rumours about certain things going on but you never know the true scale of it, so it was quite shocking to hear what was going on in Russia,’ she said. ‘You don’t want to step on to the track and straight away be looking round thinking, “Does she look dodgy? Does she look suspicious?” because it detracts from the way you perform. But I do think as a consequence of everything that’s come out, most athletes will be more aware.’
Between a hectic schedule of training at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield and looking after one-year- old Reggie, Ennis-Hill only read ‘bits’ of the WADA report into Russian doping. ‘Obviously I want to keep up to date with everything that’s going on but at the same time I’m still in the thick of my athletics and it can be quite saddening and disappointing to know what’s going on,’ she said, ‘Part of me just wants to keep focused and keep training.’
At the World Championships in 2011, Ennis-Hill was beaten by Russian Tatyana Chernova, now a confirmed drugs cheat. She is still waiting to be reallocated her rightful gold medal to go alongside the title she won in Berlin in 2009 and Beijing earlier this year.
As per her stoic nature, Ennis-Hill kept concealed news until recently of a calf injury sustained as she sprinted to the line in the 800m at Beijing’s Bird’s Nest stadium in August.
It meant she was unable to train properly until late October and although now fully recovered, she admits it will be much harder to defend her Olympic title in Rio.
She won in Beijing with 6,669 points, incredible given she had only decided to compete the previous month, but some way down on her personal best of 6,995 achieved at the London Olympics.
‘I definitely think it will be harder to win in Rio than Beijing,’ she said, ‘It will probably take about 6,800 or 6,900 points.’
Ennis-Hill will attend the SPOTY ceremony in Northern Ireland with husband Andy and would be forgiven for allowing boxer Fury a wide berth, although she laughed off his sexist comments about how good she looks in a dress.